The North American continent has been classified into 15 fire climate regions based on geographic and climatic factors. Major fire seasons, or periods of peak fire activity, can be used to alert fire management personnel and wildland users of the most probable times of year for serious burning or life-threatening situations. Although the fire season for the southern Pacific U.S. coast is June through September, critical fire weather can occur year round in the most southerly portion. Fire seasons are most active during spring and fall in the Great Plains, Great Lakes and North Atlantic regions. The typical fire season in the western United States occurs during the summer months of July, August and September.
Together, Canada and the U.S. cover nearly 18.8 million square kilometers, about 14 percent of the world's land area. The two countries share one of the longest common borders in the world, creating numerous opportunities for trans-boundary cooperation and agreements. Mexico has a forested area of 141.7 million hectares, of which 56.8 million hectares are temperate and tropical forests and 58.4 million hectares are zones with arid and semi-arid vegetation.
International and Regional cooperation in fire management has increased significantly during the last decade. In North America, under the North American Forestry Commission, there is a Fire Management Working Group that brings together specialists from Canada, the United States and Mexico to work on common problems. The Northeast Fire Compact between Canada and the northeast States has been in place for many years; and a Northwest Compact is being developed to share firefighting resources both ways across the border between Canada and the United States. A more general agreement also exists between Canada and the United States for the exchange of firefighting resources.
Agreements also exist along the border between Mexico and the United States to share resources. Central America has been especially pro-active in developing cooperative efforts among all countries in this area. Central America countries meet periodically to establish common fire management policies and strategies to help each other.
Forests are a dominant feature of the North American landscape. Forests comprise almost half of Canada (Natural Resources Canada 1996) and a third of the United States (Brooks 1993). Provincial governments are responsible for managing 71 percent of Canadian forests and 23 percent are managed by Federal and Territorial governments (Natural Resources Canada 1996). The remaining 6 percent of Canada's forests are growing on private land.
Many public forests in the United States are managed by the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs and the states to achieve multiple use objectives: recreation, water, timber harvest, wildlife habitat and rangelands for domestic cattle. Private forests are managed primarily for fiber production. The National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service manage National Parks and Wildlife Refuges, respectively. All of these agencies and organizations maintain their own fire management capacity; and cooperate with each other on a regular basis.
Depletion of old growth forests and the last remaining temperate rain forests in British Columbia, Canada, and in the Pacific Northwest of the United States have generated public concerns to stop logging in such areas. A movement has developed that makes it increasingly difficult to harvest timber on federal lands, posing difficulties in using thinning and silvicultural prescriptions to sustain viable ecosystems producing multiple objectives.
Many forests in the western U.S. especially are experiencing declines in health attributed to the exclusion of fire from fire-dependent ecosystems, changes in stand density and composition, widespread insect and disease epidemics and drought. Many of these dead and dying forests are now more susceptible to high intensity, stand replacement crown fires. Costs of fire suppression, the size of wildfires and the damages due to fires have increased significantly in the U.S. since the mid-1980s due to extended drought and unnatural accumulations of forest fuels.
